Chapter Ten
"Isn't this where Caspian was located?" I ask Lyle the next day and he gives me a sad smile.
"After Alexander left, I disbanded the business and when the kids from the Metac camp into the picture I turned it into an apartment complex of sorts," he says sincerely, and he flashes his ID to the guard.
"When you move in, we will get you and Click ID's that work on the front door and elevator," he continues, and I nod as we walk over to the elevator with him.
"Why did Alexander leave Caspian?" I ask curiously, and Lyle cringes.
"I was being a righteous asshole, I don't blame him for doing it," he admits, and I nod in understanding. We all have certainly had our moments within the last few years.
The elevator flies up and we end up on the twenty-fourth floor of the building. As we step off there is a massive open space before a wall forms and there is an island and a full kitchen. Trailing carefully behind Lyle, he talks about the layout and I listen intently. He shows me two bedrooms of the same size and one and a half bathrooms. It was a well laid out space and a decent space considering what city we are in.
"You would only be responsible for utilities and a two-hundred-dollar monthly fee I charge for general building maintenance, it's mostly to keep up the fitness center and help pay property taxes," Lyle rattles off and I pause.
"What about rent?" I ask him confused and he smiles.
"As I said, the utilities and the monthly fee, that's all I charge," Lyle says, and I tilt my head to the side in confusion.
"Lyle, I know you've done well for yourself, but this is a multimillion-dollar building and you are telling me you aren't charging rent?" I ask him.
"Yes," he says simply and I just shrug. I wasn't going to argue with him on this. Maybe he did really well in the stock market, he's smart enough to have. Adjusting my new blazer, I check my watch and debate if I have time to do paperwork.
"Where do I sign?" I ask him and he grins, and we go back downstairs. He walks me through everything quickly and I know he isn't out to cheat me, so I don't read every single word of it. Checking my watch again, I really should have left ten minutes ago.
"I need to get going to my meeting, we can discuss furniture afterward," I say as I pack my things.
"I have the day off, I can meet you after your meeting so we can pick out furniture," Lyle says quickly, and I pause and give him some side-eye.
"Fine, I will see you then," I say, not wanting to ask who is footing the bill for that.
As I hurry down the long city blocks, I text Nathan while waiting to cross streets, that I am running a few minutes late. I don't even bother to check for his response, it doesn't really matter to me at this moment. As I quickly cross the street to the side that my company is on, I see Arlington hustling down the block, her cheeks faintly flushed and her curls bouncing everywhere. She gives me a look of understanding and we both breeze through the door, the guard smiles at us and we make our way upstairs to the conference room where Nathan is waiting.
"Good afternoon ladies," he says sweetly, and I resist the urge to rip his vocal cords out from the way he treated me earlier in the week.
"Good afternoon Nathan," I say as I pull out the surviving schematics and my laptop. Booting the old thing up, I start talking a mile a minute about the statuses of the projects and what was lost versus what I have digitally.
"I wish I was that organized," I hear Aviva mumble quietly and I chuckle.
"Well we are still now over a week behind, and we need to meet the deadlines set to get the project to testing on time," Nathan says firmly, and my gaze sharpens.
"That's impossible to do, the deadline needs to be pushed back," Aviva says and Nathan just shrugs.
"I can't argue with the big man who runs this company, Beta can get it done," he says confidently and smiles at me.
"I'm still cc'd on your email chains and I saw the project tracker you sent her, you can't realistically expect her to work three eighty hours weeks to catch up, she doesn't even have a lab to work in!" Aviva says and something in her statement makes me pause.
"Why wouldn't you still be on our email chains?" I ask her and Aviva looks surprised and glares at Nathan.
"Do you tell her anything? Your company is pulling out of the deal with Voyager, this is my last meeting with you," Aviva says, and I sit back surprised.
"So, you can call me and harass me about completing work when my apartment and lab was just burned down, but you couldn't inform me that a major business transaction with the company was occurring and would alter the management I work under?" I ask Nathan coldly and he swallows.
"I figured you would have seen it on the news," he says and my blood boils at how unprofessional he can be.
"When would I have time to watch the news? In-between chasing insurance companies down or trying to find a new place to live?" I ask him heatedly and he swallows.
"This is beside the point, we need to finish game planning a strategy to get these projects done," he says and a new email pops up and it is from Arlington's Voyager account. Clicking it open, the attachment catches my attention, 'Voyager Trial Engineer Contract,' it reads, and I give her a quick glance and I see a faint smirk curling at her lips.
"Can you give me a minute to find the project tracker?" I ask him bitterly and he nods. Instead of looking for the tracker which I already have pinned to the top of my email, I open the PDF attachment and skim through it.
"I just sent it to you, it should be somewhere near the top of your emails," Nathan says after a long pause.
I have to resist the urge to laugh. She just sent me an approved contract by Lyle and Alexander which would almost triple my pay and I would get paid extra for overtime. Thinking of both of them and the anger I still hold towards Alexander, it seems minute compared to the professional disrespect I am putting up with. Arlington would be my manager and much as I don't want to admit it, I like working under her. She's flexible, intelligent, competent and so easy to work with.
"Found it," I say, and I pull up my contract we renew annually and find the clause I remember insisting be in there. There was no way for me to get out of the contract before, but if I learned anything from Cathleen, there is always a way to create a loophole.
"I'm resigning," I say seriously and both people look at me shocked. I grin under my scarf and Aviva quickly returns to a neutral expression.
"Excuse me?" Nathan asks almost offended.
"I've been given a better job offer elsewhere, and I need to take it for me and my sister," I say as I forward the attachment to my personal email and log off the computer.
"You've got to be kidding me Beta, we've given you everything. No other company is going to let a twenty-eight-year-old kid run around with half of her face covered and never work in the office!" Nathan explodes and I don't regret for a moment leaning over the table and pulling my scarf all the way down and exposing the burn scars on the left side of my face and neck. Nathan looks sick to his stomach at the site and I give him my most sadistic grin.
"I don't need to wear a scarf Nathan; I don't care what I look like. It's the reactions of those around me that I try to avoid. You've been increasingly more aggressive and disrespectful towards me personally and towards my time. I am going to go down to HR right now to finish filing the paperwork needed for my termination. Good luck finishing those projects now," I say tensely before grabbing my backpack and giving Arlington a two-finger wave, and walking out of the conference room with no guilt.
Filing the insane amount of paperwork and confidentiality release that are required if I want to leave, I feel a weird weight lifted off my shoulders as I walk towards the elevator. Dialing Click as soon as I get to the ground floor, I practically skip out the door.
"Hey, Beta," Click's cheery voice answers and I almost giggle.
"I just did something so crazy; you will never guess what," I say, and she pauses.
"Did you punch Cathleen so hard in the face you brought her memories back?" Click asks me excitedly and I laugh loudly at the thought.
"No, but that would be equally as great. Arlington sent me a preapproved contract to work for Voyager as her personal trial engineer, and I resigned from my position," I say and Click makes a noise.
"Beta, what have you been drinking?" She asks me surprised and I laugh again.
"Disrespect, Click. I couldn't take it anymore," I admit as I cross the street and look around for Lyle. I am sure he is around here somewhere. I don't doubt he knew this would all conspire today.
"It's about time you stood up for yourself, the hours you worked were inhuman. When will you start your new job?" Click asks nervously.
"I am going to see if Aviva can do dinner or something so we can figure that out and I can ask her questions on everything," I say, and I hear her voice and turn around again.
"I don't care who she really is Lyle, she deserves so much better! I saw an opportunity and we jumped on it before we couldn't," Aviva says excitedly, and I chuckle.
"You've been calling her by her first name," Click points out.
"Yup," I say, and we hang up quickly as I join the duo.
"New job, new apartment. Somebody is stepping up," Lyle teases by I falter, I only had those things because of them. I tried so hard to make my own future. But I want to create a better future for Click and me, and I wasn't about to turn down this opportunity out of spite. I have a lot to catch up on financially, and I won't let Click's education be stopped because of a fire.
"Let's do dinner tonight to go over everything," Aviva says happily, and I nod.
"For now, we are going furniture shopping!" Lyle exclaims and he loops his arm through mine and practically drags me down the next block.
We spend far too long shopping for my taste, I pick out a couch and desks and bed frames and everything else Lyle shoves me in the direction of. Rubbing my eyes tired, I can't wait for my new glasses to finally come in. My watch blinks at me and I see a call from a number I don't recognize, ignoring the call I try to find Aviva's number on my phone when it vibrates.
"Lyle, what does this say?" I ask exasperated as my head pounds from the headache that is getting worse.
"She said there was an emergency downtown and she can talk tomorrow morning about the contract," Lyle says before handing my phone.
"Thank you," I say sincerely, and he knocks into my shoulder.
"What is family for?" He muses and I just sink further into my scarf.
"Oh, there's Alexander and Cathleen," Lyle says, and I cringe.
"I'm going to go back to my hotel," I say quickly, and he shakes his head at me as I quickly walk away. I don't have any sort of capacity to deal with a dazed Cathleen or an upset Alexander.
I spend most of the night reviewing the contract and I just email Arlington with my few questions. Filling everything out, I falter when I sign the last page. Am I really about to go work for the people I ran away from? Cathleen and Alexander did the most damage that day and I certainly haven't forgiven them for everything, but something just feels right about taking this job.
I need to do this for Click, I will make sure she can finish school no matter what. I send all of the paperwork back the next morning to Lyle and Alexander, and I remove Arlington from the email chain. I don't want her to see my real name.
"Come on Click!" I call out as I bang on the door. She doesn't know where we are going, just that we are checking out of the hotel today.
"I'm almost ready, why are you in such a rush?" She snaps annoyed as she breezes out of the bathroom.
"We have to check out by a certain time, or they will charge me more," I say, but check out isn't until one.
"Where are we even going? She asks me annoyed and I wonder what has her so upset.
"I told you I would explain once we got there," I tell her for the fourth time.
"Whatever," she grumbles, and I give her a hard look. She makes a face at me and walks back into the bathroom. Making the bed before we go, I make sure I have all of our paperwork in order
"What's going on?" I ask her softly as we walk quickly.
"My dad's retrial went as expected," she grumbles, and I loop my arm through hers and guide her in the correct direction.
"How so?" I ask straining to remember what she expected to happen.
"He was declared mentally unsound and unfit to stand trial, he has been placed in Circa City's psychiatric ward and will not have visiting hours for the unforeseeable future," Click says disappointedly and my heart hurts for her. I've gone with her once to visit her father in the last two years and I know much it hurts her that she can't see him, but she isn't daft, she knows how dangerous he is. He always just did the best he could for her.
"I understand, give it some time and maybe we can appeal for visiting rights," I offer, and she sighs.
"Whatever you say," she says, and we make the last turn, and I tug her into the building. She gives me a confused look as I hand the security guard at the desk our ID's and he smiles at us before handing us the badges we can use for the elevator and our keys.
"Thank you," I say sincerely, and he smiles bigger.
"It's always exciting when new tenets move in," he says before leaving.
Swiping the pass, Click continues to peer up at me cursorily but stays silent. I can tell she is trying to figure everything out before I show her. Checking my texts on the way up, I see the message from last night that Lyle sent assuring me that the apartment was ready for move-in. I owe that man so much when I can get everything in order.
Stepping off the elevator, there is a large empty area before we see the soft charcoal grey couch, light grey rug, a coffee table, and TV that we can move and roll around. There is no divider between the living room and the kitchen, and everything just rolls into the dark granite kitchen isle with beautiful grey stained cabinets and chrome hardware.
"Beta?" Click asks me surprised as she looks around. Tugging her forward, I grin under my scarf. Pulling out her key, I throw open her door and she gasps and carefully walks in.
Lyle asked me what Click's favorite color was, and I had a feeling it would correspond to paint choices. Three of her walls are a soft orange crème color, with the accent wall being the vibrant yellow-orange of a warm sunset. All of the wood I chose has a deep cherry tone to it, and I got her a massive desk to do all her homework at. She spins around and takes in the small walk-in closets, the beautiful metalwork on the walls, and the already made bed with her favorite shade of magenta on the comforter.
"Beta," she says completely in surprise and there are tears in her eyes as she spins around again. There is a single photo of us on her desk that we took a few months ago.
"Do you like it?" I ask her and she runs over and pulls me into a bone-crushing hug. Hugging her tightly back, I can feel her trembling slightly.
"Do I have my own bathroom?" She asks surprised.
"It's a half bathroom," I say, and she just smiles at me with glassy eyes.
"How did you afford all this?" She asks me suddenly concerned and I pull my scarf higher.
"Lyle helped, we have a deal worked out," I fib. He doesn't want a dime back, but I will find a way to make this up to him.
"Can I see your room?" She asks me excitedly and I fumble through the keys for mine.
"Here we are," I say, and my breath is knocked out.
Looking around the moderately sized room, all the walls are a very light sky-blue which contrasts with the black wood and glass. I barely even remember picking out the glass-topped desk or the dark wood bed frame, but everything feels like something out of my dream magazine. Walking into the room, I notice something sticking out of the closet. Throwing the door open, I nearly drop to my knees. The closet is full of clothes that are my size. I see a small note sitting on a shelf holding scarves in every color and grab it.
'With love, Ruka and Dax,' I read, and tears blur my eyes.
"Woah, I have a full closet and the kitchen has a ton of pots and pans!" Click yells excitedly and I try to catch my breath. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, I see all the outlets in the walls and unique storage solutions carefully placed.
"Beta, who is Ruka?" Click asks me as she holds another note.
"What does it say?" I ask her.
"Every family needs a stocked kitchen, hope this helps," Click reads and I rub my eyes.
"She's someone else from my past, she's Cathleen's aunt," I say, and Click nods before taking a seat next to me.
"They really don't do anything halfway, do they? I feel like I didn't do anything to deserve this," Click says and I choke on a laugh through my tears.
"No, they don't, and they would do it a hundred times over," I say as I stare around in wonder. They've never done anything halfway, that's why they are all successful.
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XX Cc